The night was dark, as most nights are. The only source of light was the brightly shining moon and the small, shiny dots known as stars.
The moon cast its dull, silver light upon the silent trees in the Moonguile forest, forming
grotesque shadows that ensnared whoever was dumb enough to go in there at night.
In the middle of the eerie forest was one other source of light, more orange than the moon
and the stars, the light of a campfire.
There were people sitting around its warming and soothing light, five of them to be
precise.
They all sat in a circle around the fire, sharing its warmth and once in a while one of them
would stare over its shoulder, out into the dark nightly forest, peering into the darkness
in search of something that might consider the group to be a tasty snack, and also for their
sixth member to return.
These five young people were not really paranoid, just being as careful as they needed
in these dangerous times.
Their names were an unsung roll of honour that will perhaps, someday be remembered as
some of the greatest heroes in history.
But for now, they're just regular people, well, not that regular; taking it slow after one whole day of running around, saving the world, or trying to stop the evil and wicked god, Melpercio from destroying the world.
They were a very odd group, looking very conspicuous as they moved around, doing their brave deeds.
The most eye-catching member of this group was probably the weirdest; covered up with clothes in bright colours, resembling that of Komo Mai's flower festival, although this very peculiar person would be very insulted if you asked it if it had anything to do with a festival. The face was covered up with a grinning mask, totally shutting out any facial expressions; the other in the party had to rely on body-language to tell emotions. Even though it was hard to believe due to the odd persons way of acting and talking, this person happened to be female, and not only that, she was a genuine member of the legendary Children of the Earth, her name was Mizuti, or as she herself liked to be called; The Great Mizuti, whether she just thought very highly of herself or if it was because of her strong arcane powers, nobody would ever know, but as for now, the group had simply adjusted to calling her The Great Mizuti, and she was quite content with that.
Mizuti never walked on ground, she was always floating some decimetres over the ground, making her appear taller than she really was. At the moment, she was sitting in a very yoga-like position, and as always, floating a bit over the ground.
On Mizuti's left side was a man sitting, he was, as he said himself, in his best years, he was
not as young as he once was, but definitely as old as he was going to be. His clothes were
simple, well-used typical fishermen's clothes. He himself was an elite fisher and his body stood up to his claim, he was very well-built. His name was Gibari, and as soon as you saw his wings, you simply knew that he was very adjusted to the water. Gibari was almost always seen with a big, grinning smile on his face, and he somehow always managed to maintain a positive and happy attitude, but looks could deceive, despite him being from the poor, yet proud village of Nashira, were none had been scholared properly, Gibari was the one who cracked the most wise sayings in the group.
He, on the other hand, was not floating, as he was quite content with sitting on the ground.
He was sitting with his legs spread put, in a very typical male way, and leaning his tired back
against the trunk of a tree, with his arms placed under his head as a substitute for a pillow,
looking quite tired, his eyes were half-way closed, as if he was about to fall asleep at any
moment.
On Gibari's left side was someone who seemed to be quite the opposite to Gibari himself.
A very young man in the older teen sat very properly on an old log. As a contrast to the
very free and casual ways the others were sitting, this young man sat with his back almost
unnaturally straight, a very courteous way of sitting.
This young man was wearing an Imperial uniform, and he could easily be mistaken for
an Imperial soldier, if it wasn't for the fact that he was together with this odd group of
people.
His look was focused on some invisible spot away in the void, although in his focused
sight, a slight hint of fatigue could be spotted, once in a while his head fell down slightly,
as if to fall asleep against the young man's chest, but as soon as the young man detected
the downward movement, he quickly jerked it upwards, causing his fiery, red hair to fly
around a bit. The name of this young man was Lyude. He was quite a proper young man
who never said anything rude about anyone and never acted irresponsible, many would
probably agree that Lyude was more mature than Gibari.
Lyude was brought up in Mintaka, the capital of Alfard, to join the Imperial army, and
had been given all the scholaring necessary to do so, Lyude had joined the Imperial army,
but he didn't agree with the Empire's way of doing things and was exiled to Diadem, where
he joined the rest of the group.
Sitting awfully close to Lyude was none other than the Ice Queen of Wazn; Xelha.
She looked very innocent, as she was sitting, slumped casually down in the grass.
Although, you probably couldn't tell that Xelha was actually a queen, she was more or less
dressed as a housemaid, very casual, yet proper clothes.
In Xelha's lap was a small, very cute thing known as a greythorne, its name was Meemai, and
he was a very attached to Xelha, right now, he was sleeping silently in her hands, looking content with the world.
Xelha, on the other hand, was not asleep, she was staring into the gazing fire, letting the dancing flames lull her to sleep. But she still looked determined not to fall asleep, even though she seemed like she was in for quite a struggle.
On Xelha's left side, and Mizuti's right, was a woman sitting very casually leaned against another log.
She was looking very tired, but everybody could still see her sharpness. She was very beautiful, yet she looked so cold, almost like a shimmering sword, beautiful, yet still a weapon to kill.
Her clothes were very slim and tight; a fighter's clothes, her long, black hair was tied up
in a casual pony-tail.
She was none other than the dreaded Lady Death of the Mad Wolf unit, or she used to be, these days she was more commonly known by her real name, Savyna.
Savyna's eyes were constantly moving from place to place, making sure that no monster
would catch them off-guard.
She looked to be the most awake of the people around the fire, apart from Mizuti, whom no one could tell if she was tired or not.
There they were. Five completely different people sitting together around a campfire, awaiting their sixth member, Kalas, to return.
The silence between them had been there for hours now, everybody was relaxing and reflecting over all the things that had happened.
Although, most of them were starting to silently agree that they were starting to get bored with the silence.
Gibari decided that he had had enough of this, so he stretched his back and tried to wake up more.
"Hey." he said.
Everybody looked curiously at him.
Gibari cleared his throat and looked as if he was going to ask a very sensitive and personal question.
"Why do you think that Kalas' hair is blue?"
He got answered by loads of very surprised looks from the others.
There was a moment of now awkward silence between the group.
Gibari looked around, hoping for an answer.
"Aww. Come on! I can't be the only one who's ever thought about it."
"I do agree that it is a very curious question. But it is a little out of the blue." was the answer he got from Lyude
"I know." Gibari said and smiled his big grinning and childish smile. "But haven't always wondered if he was born with blue hair or if he dyed it?"
Xelha looked around with a wondering look.
"That is a good question. Why IS Kalas' hair blue?"
Gibari looked pleased that he seemed to have started a discussion.
Xelha thought for a while.
"I've never seen anyone else with blue hair. He must've dyed it." She said.
"That is not necessarily so. Kalas has told us that he lived with his grandfather, and that he does not remember his real parents. Perhaps they were killed? And perhaps they had blue hair?" Lyude pointed out.
"The Great Mizuti be thinking that.." everybody looked at Mizuti.
She looked around mysteriously, like she was going to reveal a huge secret that no one else was supposed to hear.
".. That Kalas' parents not be of this world. Mizuti be thinking that Kalas be a creature from another dimension, that Kalas was left here by Kalas' mother and father so Kalas would be raised by some one else, someone who be better than them." she nodded her head, thinking that she had made an excellent point.
"Maybe so. That would explain it. And he WAS raised in Mira, that place shifts around in dimensions from time
to time." Gibari said, confirming Mizuti's point.
"But that still does not fully explain it." Lyude said. "I think that Kalas is bald."
He was met with very odd looks.
"I do believe that he has hair." Gibari said.
"It is a wig. And he seems to like blue, so he has a blue wig glued to his head."
"That is... quite a theory." Xelha said with a very odd look on her face.
"Maybe he fell down in a pit of corroding acid that burned of his hair, and maybe it never grew back." Lyude said.
"Yeah, that would work as well." Gibari said. "What do you think, Xelha?"
"That Kalas' parents were explorers and thieves. They by accident came to Wazn and found the place to be so beautiful and enchanting that they had to bring proof of its existence back home, so they sneaked into the castle at night, they even made it all the way to the throne room. No one saw them, since everybody else were asleep. So, in the throne room, they stole the nation's emblem and made a run for it. BUT, one of the witches in the castle saw them and cursed them both, but since both were running, the witch only managed to curse one of them, his mother, and only halfway. So when Kalas' mother gave birth to Kalas, he was born with blue hair and one wing."
Gibari let out a slight chuckle at the complexity of the idea.
"Okay, Gibari, what's your theory?" Xelha asked with a smile.
"Huh? Me?" Gibari asked out of surprise.
"Yes, what you be thinking, Gibari?" Mizuti said and looked at him.
"Well, me.. I think.." Gibari looked up, searching for the proper words. "I think that Kalas is a horrible biological experiment. That he was once a normal human, but he was kidnapped by a shady organization that did horrible tests on him, trying to alter him to be the perfect soldier. But they failed and Kalas escaped and blew up the lab, killing everybody who worked there, so, as a part of those tests, his hair went blue."
Mizuti, Xelha and Lyude nodded in agreement.
Suddenly they all turned to Savyna and looked hopefully at her.
Savyna noticed their looks.
"Wh-what?"
"What about you, Savyna? Why do you think that Kalas' hair is blue?" Xelha asked.
Savyna looked away as if somebody had asked her something rude.
There was a moment of awkward silence.
Mizuti, Gibari, Xelha and Lyude looked at each other, knowing that they wouldn't get answer.
"Kalas and his grandfather were going to paint a wall in their house blue, Kalas was eager to help and quickly brought a ladder, so that Kalas' grandfather could reach up as high as he needed. Kalas detected a spot in the roof and climbed the ladder to investigate as Georg went and got brushes and paint. The blue paint had been put in a Magnus and Georg was going to extract it in a bowl, when it turned out that the ladder was wobbly, so Kalas lost is balance and fell down in his grandfather's arms just as he released the Magnus, so Kalas got infused with blue colour in his hair, even his roots. And therefore, Kalas has blue hair."
Savyna was met with surprised looks.
"Oh-Kay." Gibari said.
"What if... Kalas be a horrible biological experiment from another dimension? What if Kalas be here to take over the world?"
"Yeah." Gibari said, looking scared. "Maybe he was dumped here as a young child and adopted by Georg, and that he just tells us that he can't remember his past so we won't suspect him? What if he's worse than Melpercio?"
Xelha giggled.
"Oh, now you two are just being silly."
"Well, it is weird that he only has one wing. What if it is part of his disguise that went wrong?" Lyude said.
"Oh, not you too, Lyude" Xelha said and sighed.
"Yes, The Great Mizuti be thinking that Kalas be a monster." Mizuti said and crouched together.
"Yeah, he's one blue-haired, one-winged monster that will kill Melpercio, betray us all and take over the world."
"Or worse, invade it with his monster friends." Savyna said.
Everybody looked at Savyna.
"What? Can't I joke around?" she inquired of them.
"No, it's not that, Savyna. We're just surprised that you're willing to talk in this manner with us." Gibari said.

"Can't be serious all the time." Savyna answered him.

Xelha stopped the upcoming argument.

"How can you actually believe that Kalas will betray us all…. Again?" she said, looking insulted.

"But what if it would be so?" Lyude said with a distant look.

"The Great Mizuti wonders how Kalas be looking without disguise." Mizuti said.

"Yeah. I betya he has horns. And big scary claws." Gibari said with the same distant look as Lyude.

"And huge fangs." Savyna added.

"Yes. And perhaps he walks on all four, like a beast." Lyude said.

"And three glowing, red eyes." Gibari continued.

"And he be having hard scales all over his body." Mizuti said.

"And majestic wings, like the white dragon." Xelha said with a dreamy look.

"Uh? Xelha? I thought you said you thought this conversation was silly." Gibari said.

"Well, you ARE only joking around, so why shouldn't I join in?" Xelha said with a smile.

"Xelha be thinking this is a joke? This not be a joke, this be serious!" Mizuti said and crossed her arms as the stubborn child she was.

"But if Kalas alone has the power to beat Melpercio with ease, what if he invades together with the rest of his race?" Lyude said with a concerned tone.

"Hm. That be trouble." Mizuti said with the same concerned tone in her voice.

"Maybe it would be best for all if we just killed Kalas on the spot, when he doesn't suspect it, so that we won't have any unwanted surprises." Savyna said.

"True, but what if only he has the power to defeat Melpercio? What if we'll need him when we kick Melpercio's almighty butt?" Gibari asked.

"We have a dilemma indeed." Lyude said.

"You're not seriously planning on killing Kalas?" Xelha asked nervously.

"Don't be stupid, Xelha, we're just goofing around." Gibari said to calm her.

"But if Kalas truly has that much power, then perhaps it would be safest to assassinate him when he sleeps." Savyna continued.

"If these monsters even sleep." Lyude added.

"No, wait, people. We need a plan. We can't just go off killing him just like that." Gibari said and looked thoughtful. "We need to find a weakness."

Mizuti took up her deck of magnus and shuffled through it. Everybody followed her progress curiously. She found a card and held it up for all to see.

"The Great Mizuti has noticed that Kalas not be liking these."

"A rotten fish?" Savyna asked suspiciously.

"That is brilliant. A rotten fish in his face will distract him enough for us to get a clear shot." Lyude said.

Out in the forest, a figure was gaining up on the cosy light of the fire. Some old dry twigs cracked here and there where the figure put down its feet to take a new step.

It was the figure of a man carrying something bundled up in his arms.

He walked as quickly as he could, only stopping to free his cape that constantly got caught up in the shrubbery.

The man was Kalas, the sixth member of the group.

He heard the people around the fire loudly discussing something. As he focused his ears, he heard they were talking about a monster of some kind.

'Gibari must be telling them about some time when he caught a huge one.' Was the mans conclusion.

He decided not to interrupt Gibaris story, and so he sneaked as quietly as he could.

He reached the meadow where the group was sitting and cleared his throat.

"Anyone up for food?" he asked loudly.

The loud talking suddenly went silent as a tomb.

Everybody looked nervously and with an embarrassed look at each other.

Kalas felt confused.

"Did I miss something?"